Wednesday, March 25, 2009

As you all know, Alan Moore and Kevin O’Neill’s new League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1910 is out in the very near but somewhat vague future. We’ll be having a signing with both of them in late April/early May but the timing all depends on what day the books arrive. Don’t fret, you’ll get all the proper details as soon as we do. In the meantime, you'd best get down to the shop quick smart: we’ve got fifteen pages of original artwork from the book that we’ll display from this weekend! Come and have a look.

The third volume in the Ted McKeever Library is out, Metropol, which you can see a preview of here. You’ll recognise characters from the previous two books in this story about a devastated city and a killer plague causing sufferers to rise from the dead as an angels or demons. “The problem is, there are only a handful of angels, and thousands of demons,”says McKeever. “What sets it (somewhat) balanced, is the angels have skin of metal, and are heavily armed with assault weapons.”I thought I’d write something about Maurice Vellekoop’s Pin-Ups and then I thought I might even stick up some pictures but as it turns out they’re far too rude and Nat would only tell me off because this book contains willies. His fashion illustrations have appeared in Time, Cosmopolitan, GQ, Vanity Fair and Vogue, and they didn’t have willies in them, but this book does.

Much like his infamous collection ABC: A Homoerotic Primer, this is a collection of pictures of young men along the same sort of lines of George Quaintance, Harry Bush, and the unforgettable Tom of Finland. Iconic artworks like Michelangelo’s David get an obscene makeover, as does Leonardo Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man which I think is rather timely given the currentinternetdiscussionsabout Dr Manhattan.

Showcase Presents Ambush Bug TP Volume 1 is a monumental 500 pages of hilarious insanity. Claiming to have gained his superpowers from a costume sent to Earth from a distant planet, Irwin Schwab proceeded to wind up every other proper hero he encountered during his own super-heroic career. There’s loads of stuff in this collection including Ambush Bug’s brilliantly named secret origin story, We Thought Him Up.

Also out this week is Cla$$war Series 1 in a collected hardcover. A political thriller with superheroes (as writer Rob Williams described it), this critically-acclaimed miniseries was voted Wizard’s Indie Superhero Comic of the Year 2002 so it’s probably worth a look if you missed it back then. If you did catch it and liked it, you’ll be wanting the exclusive new story by Williams with art by Trevor Hairsine they’ve added to the collection plus the usual bevy of big hardcover extras.

Mark Millar and Peter Gross’ 2004 3-issue miniseries Chosen has been renamed and repackaged like a Marathon bar and is now called American Jesus Volume 1: Chosen. Millar explains why in some bits of an interview I’ve once again purloined from Comic Book Resources, as is my wont:

"The whole thing was always planned as a nine-issue series, and it was going to be made up of three trilogies so I could get three #1s out of it. I've always got an eye on sales, so I wanted to get three #1s. Plus, with it being a biblical thing, a trilogy seemed to make sense. We even ended the first one on a cliffhanger."

We’ll be getting the follow-up miniseries The Second Coming at some point in the future. Also in the post is the final issue of Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso’s 100 Bullets! No, it’s not out this week, but I have word from DC that it has been expanded to a special 48-page issue hitting the shelves on April 16.

The Royal Academy currently has their own exhibition on and I’m willing you bet you a packet of crisps it’ll be bigger than our LoEG one. They’re showcasing the work of 19th century Japanese printmaker Utagawa Kuniyoshi until early June. Here’s what they’ve got to say about it:Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797–1861) is considered one of the greatest Japanese print artists. Prolific and multi-talented, Kuniyoshi portrayed the historic heroes of Japan’s warrior past and through masterful storytelling kept alive the great myths and legends. His depictions of fashionable beauties and actors reveals another strand in his work, as do his prints of comical or satirical subjects, vivid reflections of his lively sense of humour. The exhibition will display Kuniyoshi’s most staggering imagery, from his innovative representations of tattooed Chinese heroes of the Suikoden, to his most successful applications of Western perspective, as well as good examples of his humorous designs.More here.

We’ve got a pair of tickets to give away so first person to claim ‘em in the comments or an email to the shop gets ‘em! You don’t even have to write a rubbish haiku or anything, promise.